Glimpses of Paradise

By: James Bell

Narrated by: Alexandra O’Karma

Christy Award winner and Romantic Times Lifetime Achievement nominee James Scott Bell is a best-selling inspirational author whose gripping historical fiction follows two small-town friends struggling with lofty parental expectations.

Doyle dashes his father's law-school dream by getting caught up in the maelstrom of World War I. Then Zee runs off to chase her dazzling dream of silver-screen stardom - devastating her pastor father. Soon the horrors of war sap Doyle of all hope. And the Hollywood mirage strips Zee of her virtue. But will Zee or Doyle turn to God before it's too late?

©2005 James Scott Bell (P)2005 Recorded Books, LLC

Narrator is difficult to listen to

I fell asleep in the first 15 minutes and seem to have missed an hour of narrative. I went back, but I don't seem to have missed much. The narrator reads VVVEEEEEERRRRRYYYY slowly, almost as if it is an old tape that stretched, and her voice lacks character. It goes up and down in the appropriate spots, but that's not all there is to expression. The pitch changes convey nothing.

I've never considered previewing the narration to be important, as, while some narrators are better than others, I had not (until now) run across one I couldn't listen to. Be warned! I do not expect to finish this book, and plan to see if there's a way to return it and get another.

As for the book itself, who knows? Thinking back to the content so far, I would say that it's rather mediocre but not offensive, and, as in Elsie Dinsmore or Tom Swift, things will happen. Sdaly, I feel no compulsion to find out. This narrator does the author no favors.